Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1655: The Best Natural Treatment for Anxiety & Depression

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover eight ways exercise improves anxiety and depression. See a clip at bodybuilding.com The MOST important effects of proper exercise. (2:01) The #1 reason why you are consistent in health and training. (7:00) Startling statistics surrounding depression and anxiety. (8:58) Eight Ways Proper Exercise Improves Depression and Anxiety. (12:53) #1 – Changes the chemicals in the brain. (13:04) #2 – Encourages your hormonal health. (18:47) #3 – Forces you to be present. (21:50) #4 – Empowers you to feel stronger. (26:49) #5 – Changes your relationship to the physical effects of anxiety, fear, and pain. (32:10) #6 – Develop a better relationship with medication. (36:08) #7 – It gets easier as you get better and more experienced. (37:37) #8 - Accept your body for what it is. (39:01) Related Links/Products Mentioned October Promotion: MAPS Anabolic and NO BS 6-Pack Formula – Get Both for $59.99!    Visit Drink LMNT for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Facts & Statistics | Anxiety and Depression Association of America Strengthen your mood with weight training - Harvard Health How Does Exercise Affect the Brain? | Dana Foundation Why Spiritual Awareness Means Physical Health – Mind Pump Workout Because You Love Yourself Not Because You Hate Yourself – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dwayne Johnson (@therock)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, treatment for anxiety and depression, studies actually show that exercise is an effective treatment for those things, at least for mild to moderate forms. And as far as natural treatments, there's nothing that competes with those. So we talk about all the reasons why proper exercise can benefit your levels of anxiety and can help people with mild to moderate forms of depression. Now this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, LMNT, okay, or otherwise known as element. Now they make electrolyte powder drinks

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maps and a ball like and the no BS 6 pack formula are available in a special bundle. So you can get both for $59.99, this saves you over $100. It's a huge promotion. I don't think we've ever done this before, so it's a really good one. If you're interested, head over to mapsoctober.com. Once again, it's mapsoctober.com. Hey, so I wanna talk about probably the most underrated yet,

I, in my opinion, most profound and important effect of proper exercise. I want to talk about the mental and psychological effects of exercise in particular, the effects that it has on two of the most common, I guess, mental issues or disorders, anxiety and depression. Yeah. Do you think this isn't talked about very much because we are either just learning about a lot of the science around it, or do you think it's because of the dramatic rise in the last decade or two in the same climate we're facing right now?

Yeah, or is it both? I think it's that, and also, you know, because sex sells, what tends to sell fitness is the look and the physical effects. you know, because sex sells, what tends to sell fitness is the look. Right, yeah, and the physical effects. But I'm going to be very honest here as a trainer. I trained lots of people for over two decades, I trained people. And I definitely saw people's bodies change. I saw people lose weight, I saw people get stronger,

improve their mobility and their performance. But nothing was as impactful or as profound as those emotional, mental effects that people felt. That's what people commented on the most. It was, people love the physical effects, but what people always commented on the most was how it made them feel mentally. Well, veteran trainers and coaches get this. And I mean, I got this later on,

right, past 10 years in a micro-r, quickly figured out like, if I could help my clients connect the dots to that, I could control that because they're coming to see me and if I could exercise and train them three times a week, when I can't control what they put in their mouth. Like if they follow their macros and they did their, they follow their meal plan,

I couldn't control that. So as far as body composition, as great as the coaches I could be, as far as trying to meal plan. I couldn't control that. So as far as body composition, as great as the coaches, I could be as far as trying to teach them, I couldn't control that, but I could control their exercise and training, which directly impacted this. So if I could get them to make the connection to how much that was improving, I always kept that client.

I could always keep them, and it may be eventually get them to change behaviors around nutrition and change the body composition, but I started to learn like, oh wow, this is so powerful, and maybe eventually get them to change behaviors around nutrition and change the body composition. But I started to learn like, oh wow, this is so powerful and I can control some of this as a coach because I'm training them. If I could get them to see the value, yeah, to understand it and see the value in it, this person could be like, it's always a tangible metric for really like being able to see personal

growth in somebody. So, you know, be able to take them through fitness and have them work on themselves on their body. You know, that in turn then translates into their mental state and their well-being and really accepting the fact that they're improving. Well, also, I mean, let's be very clear here. How much does anxiety, mild anxiety, mild depression or mental kind of issues contribute

to obesity, contribute to not taking care of yourself. So, it's all intricately connected. And we also forget, by the way, we know that exercise improves our physical bodies, but we forget that the brain is your body. That is your physical body and a healthier brain, just like a healthier back or abs or biceps, operates better. It just works better. This is literally, I'm being quite honest, the mental effects that proper exercise can really produce in a person, I think overshadow the physical effects.

That's how profound it is. And what you said Adam is so true because you have to let people know, because they often come into hiring a coach or a trainer or wanting to work out with no idea that that's even gonna affect that. And then they do notice improvements in how they feel, but they always connect it to it's because I look better.

It's not necessarily because of that. In fact, you cannot change how you look and you'll still get these profound, you know, mental effects. I'm trying to actually right now recall if I ever had anybody come to me and go, hey, I want to hire you for training because I have anxiety or depression or I want to work out. I meant, no, I don't think I ever. It's always, it's always body composition that they're seeking out or some performance

health issue or something. Yeah, so yeah, doctor said something related to health, which is body composition or health performance like that realm. But ironically, this is the thing that I think really kept or turned someone into a lifer. Like if you were somebody who wasn't really into working out of fitness, this was what was what if I could make this connection and then we're like, because they're like, you know what, I'm going to be good and bad about eating my whole life. There's going to be streaks where I'm dieting well and getting ready in in shape and I might be leaner this year than last year or whatever.

But if I start to make the connections that, oh my god, when I am exercising like, I'm a better person. I don't have depression, I don't have anxiety. I'm more fun to be around. I'm happier, I sleep better. Even temperament. Yeah, they start connecting all that stuff and they start to realize like, oh shit,

like I can't stop this in my life. This needs to become a part of my life. We need to emphasize that. You talk to anybody who's been exercising consistently for years and years and years, and you ask them, what's the number one reason why you're consistent training? I mean, I've been working out since I was 14 years old.

So we're talking, you know, well over 25 years, I've been doing this consistently. It's not for the physical body comp results. I like that, that's great. That's not what keeps me consistent week over week, year over year, decade over decade. It's not what keeps me consistent week over week, year over year, decade over decade. It's the mental and emotional effects. It is so profound for me, I've identified that,

which is why I'll always do it, which is why I'll do it when I lose strength as I get older. Inevitably, as I get older, I'm not gonna perform as well, I'm not gonna look as good, it's not gonna matter to me because of those other effects. And you talk to anybody who's been doing a long time, I know people listening right now who've been exercising for years and years and years,

they're probably shaking their head and agreeing. That's why they continue to do it. If they've made that connection, because some people have been training for years and they're still stuck in the, it's all about how I look. And like you said, because I look at it, I feel good. Is that a message?

They don't understand that, yes, that helps, but it's also directly affecting. Yeah, well, because there's still some people in the trap of trying to fix something about themselves and going into it with like, I'm, you know, I'm insufficient because like, I don't look this way or whatever, like it's very much of a punishing sort of mentality which they haven't been able to transition into, you know,

why this is actually gonna be benefiting me and improving me. Well, and to Salis Point that he made earlier, that's just reinforced by all the marketing. Yes. While the marketing is around sex and how you look and be this way in 30 days or 60 days, like nobody's talking about like,

hey, sign up for this year long program and be mentally healthy. No, say no. That's not sexy to sell that. And so, yeah, so you already have these conditions that people already are in, and then it's being reinforced with the marketing. So it really takes, I think, a really good coach,

or a self-aware person that's doing the work themselves to figure this out. Now, if you look at just anxiety and depression, you're looking at, and this is people who are reported, who actually go on to the doctor and reported it. So the numbers are actually higher than this, because I'm sure there's a large percentage of people that suffer from mild to moderate anxiety or mild to moderate depression that never report it largely men But even some women don't report it

But these are the numbers that that we know of right so 20% of Americans suffer from anxiety and 36% of those people never actually get treatment. Okay, so although 20% reported, 36% of that 20 still don't even do anything for it. About 7% to 10% of Americans suffer from depression. These are again, people that report it. So I'm sure that numbers much higher. Yeah, and in these days, I'm sure it's even skyrocketed

in terms of numbers that they haven't yet taken into account, so. Absolutely. So you're talking about tens of millions of people that we know of, but probably twice as many that we don't know of. Now studies have been done on proper exercise and mild to moderate anxiety and mild to moderate depression.

And studies clearly show now that exercise, proper exercise, is as good, at least as good as medications for treating those things. And many studies suggest that exercise is actually superior, especially when you look at the long term. As they continue going, you start to see even more of a benefit with exercise. How recent is that literature? Is that relatively new? I mean, what's...

We're looking at the last 20 years, but the last 10 years a lot of stuff's coming out. And to the point now where they're considering proper exercise as a first line treatment. So you go to a psychiatrist or to your doctor, I suffer from anxiety, I suffer. In the past, they would say go outside, try and move, but now they're talking about being more deliberate with it. Like we want you to exercise this many days a week. Here's what you're going to do.

I've even heard talk of incorporating fitness facilities as part of the treatment. You come here, you meet with somebody who can exercise with you because it's so damn effective. Do you think talking those things? Yeah, if it's moving this direction and we're seeing this much movement in the last decade that will get to a place where insurance will start to cover like personal training. Oh, if they're attached, yeah.

Yeah, some kind of treatment, I'm sure. I mean, here's a thing, here's the truth to me. I mean, absolutely. I just, I don't ever see it going fully that way unless it is, unless there's money to be made. Because right now, the doctors make money to prescribe that stuff, that's just how it's work, right? That with all the pharmaceuticals.

Well, I know insurance companies would be for it because it would actually save insurance companies money. And insurance company paying for exercise, think of all the side effects of that, that would save them money. They would spend probably less money on cholesterol medication for the patient. They'd spend less money on surgeries,

less money down the road for other medications because of all the incredible benefits that exercise provides aside from the improvement in their anxiety. I feel like insurance would have to accept it and doctors would have to get some sort of a kickback for it to actually work because that's how the relationship works in the pharmaceutical world right now.

Yeah, that's true. Insurance accepts it and doctors get kickbacks. So as long as that's in place, I feel like that will, no matter how much great studies come out to support what you're saying right now, until we move in that direction, I don't know if it'll ever be the problem.

Here's the good news of all that. The good news of all that is it's very accessible to most people. So unlike a medication that you might not be able to get your hands on unless you get a prescription or if you don't have insurance as just way too expensive, exercise, proper exercise, you could do with zero equipment. We have programs designed around zero equipment or you could get minimal equipment like resistance bands and a fisiaball or even a pair of dumbbells and it's very, very accessible to most people. So it doesn't, it's not nearly as inaccessible as prescription drugs and we're going to go

through all the ways that are proven as to why exercises so effective for these things. That's been proven in studies and also just our experience as coaches. Now here's the first one and this one is very interesting. So, what do medications do to help with anxiety and depression? Well, we know some of what they do, some of the stuff that they do, we're not quite sure of, but we do know that they alter your brain and body chemistry, right? This, we know that you take a medication, it'll alter brain chemistry or the chemistry in your body,

and that will lead to a change in how you feel. It could reduce the physical effects of anxiety or it can lift your mood and make the lows not as low and make you feel like you're not so depressed. Well, guess what exercise does? It actually does that as well. It actually changes the chemicals in the brain. I wrote some stuff down here because I actually wanted to make sure I looked up exactly what's happening in the brain. I wrote some stuff down here because actually wanted to make sure I looked up exactly what's happening in the body.

So exercise is associated with lower sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis reactivity. Okay, so what does that mean? Those are the parts of the body that react that when you're like fight or flight, right? That initial signal of, oh my God, I'm anxious. Exercise makes them less hyper reactive, right? So-

Is that because it kind of normalizes it? Because you get some of that into training? Interdraining, stress, I think. And it's not so foreign, is that what those are? Probably because you're making that system healthier. You're making it react more appropriately. So here's an analogy I'm gonna give. That makes it just like if you were take the hot cold plunge,

it trains your immune system, right? Or strengthens your immune system because it gets you adapted to be able to go extreme 10 more shots. Well, I'll use another analogy that I think makes sense. Children that grow up on farms around lots of animals and go outside a lot tend to have less allergies and less autoimmune issues. And the theory is because they're exposed to animal dander and they're outside playing

out some of that stuff. So that's all that stuff. That they're immune systems, just they're not hyper reactive. You raise a kid in this hyper clean environment without that stuff. They're tendency to have allergies much higher and what's an allergy, it's your immune system being hyper reactive. Really reacting. Right, so exercise improves the health of that kind of reactivity.

And it's been shown again in studies. Exercise increases serritornergic and nor adrenet, excuse me, nor adrenergic, I hope I'm saying that, levels in the brain similar to the effects of antidepressants. Okay, so serotonin, noradrenaline, other chemicals in the brain, chemical, these drugs that you take to change those to improve how you feel, exercise this similar things to those in the brain,

improve serotonin, gives you healthier levels of other chemicals in the brain. We've already observed this in studies. It increases serotonin synthesis, metabolism, and release has been noted following exercise. What does that mean? There's an acute effect from exercise that's similar to some of these drugs.

Now long-term, this stuff actually starts to get better. You also get, so trip off this, exercise increases endogenous opiod opioid activity in the central and peripheral nervous system. Make it feel happy. Like you're taking opiates. So now your body's producing more opiates because you're exercising properly. And that's what gives you that kind of euphoric feeling and reduces pain.

Now here, trip off this. Scientists observe this in studies and said, okay, let's give a drug that blocks the effects of opioids in the body, just to see if exercise then loses its effect on this. And they did, they gave, we're to called opioid antagonists to animals or to people, had them exercise. And although the opioid results or effects were blunted, there still was a positive effect on mood.

So what does that tell you? There's a lot more. There's more to the story. There's a lot more that we don't understand. Brain-derived neurotropic factor is something that encourages neurogenesis and brain cell growth and basically improving the connections that the brain makes. Exercise increases that. They call it like miracle grow or fertilizer for the brain.

So now you get this neurogenic effect. Actually, it's like, okay, you build your muscles when you exercise, you also build your brain when you exercise. So you're creating this environment where the chemicals in your body move towards this kind of happier, less depressed, less anxious type of state. That we try to mimic with drugs.

We try to mimic this with medications, but this is happening naturally. And this is all without anything to do with nutrition. Just purely exercise. Yeah. Like what you're in a surplus deficit, maintenance doesn't matter. Exercise by itself does all these positive things. It all speaks to the body's built to move. At the end of the day, all of our systems

need to be expressed and need to be moving and generating some kind of energy. Because if we don't use it, a lot of times, this is where all of our problems start to come out of that and we're trying to find out different chemical ways to induce a lot of these systems that we already have that reward us for moving. And so this also shits on my philosophy as a kid

when I was a young trainer or I was on or off. I used to have this attitude of, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. I used to be like, I've dieted I diet is so important, because I was so driven by body composition, you know, my diet is so important that if I'm not doing that, then I'm not gonna fuck around and work out, and then if I'm gonna work out,

I'm gonna diet, like I'm just gonna do it, I'm gonna do it all or none. And so, this totally shits on that, because of you. You still get those benefits. Yeah, because there's incredible benefits outside of where you're at nutritionally, that it's something that you should keep in your routine

regardless of what your body composition goals are. Now, there's a second part to the physical effects that exercise has, that then affect your mental health, which is your hormonal health, right? So I'll ask you, Adam, because you experienced very low testosterone levels after coming off anabolic steroids from competing, and you felt low testosterone levels,

all of the things being equal, had a low testosterone alone make you feel. Oh yeah, terrible. And awful. And the only thing that I noticed that when I was doing all the different stuff, right? And I was taking all the herbs and paying attention to sleep and,

I mean, we tried everything as far as the natural protocols to help live and was doing the juve lives, doing all kinds of things to try and support it. Nothing I felt made a bigger difference than when I would just have a strength train. And just moderate amount too. I recognized really early that it wasn't about intensity and how often I was doing it.

Like I needed to do it every day. It was that two to three times a week, if I was strength training, nothing was making my hormone levels, my testosterone levels feel the best than that out of all the other things that I was messing with. Yeah, and here's what exercise has been shown to do, especially resistance training in particular. It raises the feel good hormones, it lowers the feel bad hormones, and it balances things out.

So in men you see a consistent raise in testosterone, whether it's low, or even if you have moderate or high testosterone, you see it go up. It up regulates the receptors that testosterone attaches to. It increases growth hormone, which they call the youth hormone. Cortisol is much more appropriate, so it lowers it if it's too high. In women, you see a balancing of estrogen and progesterone. I mean, people get hormone therapy because of how incredible it makes them feel. Exercise promotes these youthful levels of hormones, especially when you do a pro-positive tissue form of exercise like resistance training, because resistance training is telling your body

to build muscle, your body then up increases the build muscle hormones and lowers the break muscle down hormones. What are the build muscle hormones and lowers the break muscle down hormones. What are the build muscle hormones? These are the feel good youthful hormones, the ones that you had when you were younger and all those tear down hormones, those ones that make you not feel so good.

Well, those lower because your body's trying to build muscle. So exercise, proper exercise, and in particular resistance training encourages this hormone profile that is healthy and your hormones definitely have an effect, definitely have an effect on your mental state. We know this for an absolute fact. I mean, you talk to anybody who's ever had to take thyroid hormone because they were not producing enough thyroid or someone with low testosterone or a woman who had to take

other hormones. You ask them how they felt afterwards when things got balanced out. They're like, I feel like a completely different person. So those are the two kind of physical types of, or ways that exercise can affect the body. Now the rest are most of them are psychological. And here's I think where the real magic is, is the psychological effects of exercise. These are the harder ones to get people to connect to. They are.

It's easier to tell show somebody physically who they can say, oh, wow, I definitely feel better today. But having them connect to the psychological stuff is a little bit more challenging. Right. So the first one is that encourages proper exercise, encourages being present, being present, look, spiritual practices, I think all spiritual practices, all major ones I can think of, talk about being present as a way to calm yourself and define peace, right?

What does that mean? Well, if I'm always thinking of the past, tends to be filled with regret and shame. If I'm thinking about the future, tends to be filled with anxiety, what's gonna happen? I don't know. But right this second, right? Like for example, right now sitting in this room

with you guys doing this podcast, there is no fear, there is no shame, there is no, because we're here, I'm here right now. You're in the moment. I'm in the moment. And by the way, being in the moment, I mean, you can experience this doing lots of things. Like if you're a daredevil and you like to skydive,

why do you like it so much? You are in the moment. It's like people love roller coasters. Yes, that's why everybody, yeah, that has such a appeal because it really forces you to acknowledge what's right in front of you. And sometimes, you don't have to go extreme like that. That's what the beautiful thing about exercises, it does require a lot of attention. It requires a lot of systems of the body to react and appropriately deal with, you know, this level of stress

and takes all your focus and presses it right into that direction. So it is one of those great tools that we have available to just get us in the right mindset right now in this moment. I can't help but think about the rock talking about this. Are you guys familiar with like his thing that he says whenever he trains? No, what is he saying? Oh, you've never seen that?

Oh, he yells at everybody. Focus, focus, focus. That's like his thing, like he's always talking about, and it is, it's around being present in the moment when you're lifting and being so focused on what you're doing, but there's so much truth to that. Like when you, and anybody who's ever squatted with three or 400 pounds on their back

or pulled 400, 500 pounds up off the ground, like can't be thinking of anything. You can't be thinking about yesterday, or what's to buy now. You 100%. This is one of my favorite parts about lifting head. Is it requires that. I can go through a pumping workout and kind of light,

go into the motions. I can do my mobility thing and be kind of thinking about other things. Not when you're watching. But what I am training heavy and getting after it, I have to be in the moment. There's just too much risk involved. There's too much potential injury

if I'm not paying fully attention to my body and how I'm moving. And there's tremendous benefit in training that muscle. There is in high skill forms of exercise are better at this. I think Rye resistance training is one of the best ones because you're doing so many different movements. You have to focus on what you're doing.

You're thinking about the lift while you're doing it. And so you have lots of opportunities where you're being present right now, not thinking about anything else, the what you're doing. And this has been proven time and time again. This is a meditation, this is what meditation does. Meditation is about being present,

if I were to generalize it, right? And it has profound effects on your, I'm calming your body, making you feel different and better. And it gives you a break. It gives you a break. For me, an hour workout is a break from stress. Because in that hour workout, I'm in that workout. I'm not thinking about anything else.

But here's the thing, like idle minds. Like what do they call that? What's that quote is the devil's playground? I don't mind the devil's playground. Right, so it's really hard and challenging for people to be able to sit still and then meditate and focus on just one thing and like block everything else out. Which I think is a great thing to pursue.

I think that's tons of value there. But you know, why not do something right away that will get you there when your entire body is devoted and focused on one objective and it has the same effect to that, which then you can kind of build off of that and realize I can also do this by slowing down and clearing my mind of everything else except for one thing.

Well, it's a skill. Yeah. Like anything else, you have to develop it. And how many times have we got messages about that? I've tried to meditate. I can't do it. You know, practice stuff. Yeah, it's a skill that you have to develop.

Some people can go right into it. Some people can sit down, cross their legs, turn the lights off, and be in the moment, but some people can't. That's why training and exercising is great because it kind of forces that. So if you're somebody who doesn't... You're doing something that requires a lot of... Yeah, you're doing something that requires a lot of... Yeah, go do, like I said, go do some heavy loaded back squats

or plyometrics for that, like something that's proprioceptive like that, I think would also encourage you to be very present, right? If you're doing jump boxes or ice skaters or a movement that's skilled-driven like that, go do an exercise like that and tell me you're not thinking about just that and nothing else and you're just training that muscle. You're training that muscle, that part of the brain to know how to do that.

You'll have a much easier time when you have to learn how to apply that in real life. When stress or drama hits you, you switch over to that and you can do that. But if you never train that, you never exercise, and then you're expected to do that when stress hits you and really tough to do. Now talk about skills that help you with the rest of life. Proper exercise is very empowering because when you're working out and here's the beauty of proper exercise,

if you do it right, the level of intensity and challenge it meets your current fitness level, or at least it slightly exceeds it, right? So you need the way you train if you want your body to improve and all this stuff. It needs to be hard, right? But what does that mean hard? Well, that means somebody who's never worked out before, that could be, you know, five

sets of body weight squats or five reps, I should say, of body weight squats. That's hard for them. If you're advanced, it's obviously much more than that. Now, why is, how does this encourage empowerment? Well, because you do something hard, you get better at it, and then you improve the intensity, or you increase the weight, or you do it again, and you continue to challenge yourself. And what does it do? This is, by the way, this is how you empower children. The way you empower children is you allow them to overcome challenges challenges and you allow them to overcome harder challenges as they get better and better. And it makes you feel confident. I can handle things. I can do things. Not to mention, and I heard this

a lot from women, especially from women, the feeling of being physically strong is a very empowering feeling for somebody who's never really felt that before. I'll never forget the client, the female client that I had that used to travel a little time for business, come back from a business trip after training with me for a few months, and she was almost in tears, and she goes, for the first timing years, I lifted my bag and put it in the overhead compartment. She was real small petite lady. I always had to ask some dude on the plane. I did it myself. She goes, you have no idea how empowering that feels.

That I know, I don't need somebody to help me carry my bags. I can do it myself. Feeling physically strong is a very empowering feeling. And you don't need to be, you know, hercules. You just need to feel solid and strong in your body. I think there's more to that, right? Like I think, like, let's take somebody who's not getting, didn't get stronger

that just lost a hundred pounds. The, the mental discipline and consistency that it takes, because that's a long journey. I don't give a shit. That's a challenge. It's a challenge. It's a journey. It was something that you had to make a lot of sacrifice in order to and you did it. So if, even if, even if it's not a strength in, because you're right, for sure that is empowering and shit. But it can be extremely empowering to just get through that journey of pursuing weight loss and getting all the way down to that. And that ends up empowering you in other places,

like because you start to connect like, oh shit, like it's not meant to be easy. And it was hard, and I had to make lots of sacrifices to get there, and I had to be consistent with it, and it didn't happen overnight, and it took a a long time and you start to learn how to go oh wow these other things in my life that feel so hard and challenging oh shit I did that 100 pounds I lost it took me two years and stuff like that this whole thing I had this real estate license I got to study for for six months all the sudden these things they seem so much more attainable

because you've done something like that inside the gym. So there's such an empowering piece to that too, even if it's not a translating into like being stronger in the world, just that, hey, I did something really fucking hard that took a long time that not a lot of people can do. That's right. It's a daily challenge. It's hard, and you grow, and you get better. That's what exercise and fitness is.

And it does make other challenges seem more attainable, you grow and you get better, that's what exercise in fitness is. And it does, it does make other challenges seem more attainable, or at least you can handle them. And so when you're empowered in life, you're less fearful. You feel less of that added control feeling, like I can't handle things. That's a scary kind of feeling to be in.

In fact, that's probably one of the number one reasons why people feel anxious, is that they feel like they're not, they don't have the control or they can't accept, you know, the challenges. Oh my god, that's too hard, I can't do it. Well, this is why we hate the messaging around the genetics thing so much, right? Because even though genetics play a massive role in all of our body types, you can't control it. Yeah, giving that messaging out to the average person gives them an excuse to go, oh, well, I was born to be this way. So I'm not going to do anything about it. It's not the only card in your deck. And it's a terrible message because then it turns a lot of people off from even pursuing this

and giving them the opportunity to empower themselves. So I think that's one of the biggest things that we hate about that messaging is that. Did you know that physical fitness is perceived to be more challenging than becoming super wealthy? Yeah, the abs thing. Remember we shared that study. There's a study that says that it's more people are

millionaires than have six backs or visible abs or whatever. Not saying that that's some goal you need to attain, who cares. But people perceive it to be more challenging than achieving lots of wealth, because it is, it's a very challenging thing. Now, we know as coaches, like if you follow steps and you're consistent, everybody can achieve a great deal of fitness.

I can get someone six pack abs a lot faster, I can get somebody a million dollars. And that's why it's so empowering, because you perceive it to be so like, impossible, and then you do it, like how many times have you had clients that you trained, especially older clients, right? People in their 50s, who after they're consistent,

and they train with you for a year or two, and they come to you and they go, I feel better now than I felt in my 20s. I am in better shape now than it was. I can't believe what a difference. And they're 50, right? They have all their genetics and age is working against them now,

and yet they feel better than they did when they were in their 20s. So that empowering part can't be overstated. Here's something that's really cool, and this is again, this is also backed by studies. Let's talk about the physical feelings of a hard workout, and trust me, this is all gonna connect to, you know, kind of anxiety in particular, right? You're working out hard, what happens?

You sweat, your palm sweat, your body sweats, you feel pain, things burn, muscles hurt, your heart is beating really fast. You know what that also sounds like? Anxiety. Anxiety. It sounds a lot. In fact, the physical effects of hard exercise are very closely, I mean, they almost mirror the physical effects of anxiety. So why is this important?

If you train your body regularly, and you're exercising on your own or in the gym, and you're getting these physical feelings of anxiety, but you're connecting them to something that's positive, something that feels good, something that's empowering, this is improving my fitness, I think I enjoy this, this is cool. You develop, you change your relationship

to the physical feelings of anxiety, fear, and pain, especially pain. When I work out, I've been doing this for years, I feel no less pain than a beginner. I feel the same pain that they feel when we work out. I might have to do more weight and train harder, but I feel the same pain that they feel when we work out. I might have to do more weight and train harder, but I feel the same pain. But that pain doesn't bother me like it may a beginner

because I have a different relationship to it. I actually like or enjoy that. It still hurts. So when I say enjoy it, it's not like this pleasurable type feeling, but rather I have a different relationship to it. Well, I love that association because also they've talked about that as being When you get excited. It's a very similar pathway. Yep to you know pin parallel to that having anxiety is just

What you attach to that? Either being negative or positively associated towards that and so you know to think about that is going through an Exercise you do you know have those, you generate the heart rate, you generate, you know, your body temperature can kind of come up a bit, like you get all these same physical feelings behind it. It's just that now if we relate that more in a positive direction, you can fuel that towards a better outcome.

Well, it also just gets you comfortable being in that position. I mean, how many times have you guys had somebody with severe anxiety talk about the part of what creates the severe anxiety is just that bit of anxiousness, they become anxious about being anxious. The fear of it. Yes. Totally.

And then it's like they get a little, because we all get a little bit of anxiety or angst, right? But a lot of times when you feel that, you comment down, you control it, or your ease in it still, where somebody who's not used to that feeling, and this is foreign, they sort of get anxiety and anxious, and then it compounds,

because then they're anxious about being anxious, and then it turns into this complete nervous breakdown. Or they have a different relationship to it, to where they maybe had a panic attack one time, which is terrifying. Now they feel the beginnings of its panic attack, and their mind, it's the beginnings of a panic attack one time, which is terrifying. Now they feel the beginnings of its panic attack, in their mind it's the beginnings of a panic, maybe it's just mild anxiety,

but because now they fear the panic attack, they actually start to fuel, it's a positive feedback loop. It's no different than when you take a microphone and a speaker and you put the microphone to the speaker and it makes that loud noise, that's what's called a positive feedback loop, right? The noise from the mic goes to the speaker,

but then the speaker feeds the mic, and it goes louder and louder and louder. This is part of the reason why anxiety can be so bad. The same thing with pain, you know, if you, you talk about people who have been under severe physical trauma, and they have a poor relationship with physical pain, because it reminds them of the trauma.

Well, when you're exercising and you're causing physical pain to yourself, but you're under control of it, I'm doing the reps myself, I can stop when I want, but also I'm getting more fit, I feel better, I'm stronger, it really does change your relationship to that pain. This is, again, one of those things that you can't, I think, overstate.

Here's a huge positive with exercise that you cannot say about medications. Medications tend to develop, people tend to develop a tolerance to them. It's not uncommon where you take a medication and it works, but then over time, you need more of it. And then over time, you need more of it. And then you got to go to the doctor and say, it's not working for me anymore. And they change you to a different medication that maybe is a little stronger or works at all. Like it in all those. They all lead to

higher doses. That's right. Here's the beauty of exercise. You don't develop a quote unquote tolerance to it. It's not like you do it, and then you do in the sense that you get more fit, but the tolerance to develop from exercise is actually a great thing. Getting more fit is not the same thing as your body not responding to medication like it used to, because as you up the dose of medication, so you up the potential side effects,

and the, you know, the fact that you, so you up the potential side effects and the the fact that you're dependent on them. Well, exercises like that. The beauty of as you up the dose of exercise, you continue to up the dose of benefits you give. And lower the effect, the negative side effects. Yes, exactly. It's a beautiful, this is why studies suggest that exercise is long term better for things like mild to moderate depression because when they do these long studies

They show that initially it's but about as good But then as they go longer and longer they go well looks like it might actually start out performing Because and here's the next part it gets better over time and it always gets better over time This is the beauty I've been been working out for over 25 years, and my workouts are better now than they were before. Not because I'm stronger, not because I'm more fit. I was stronger in my 30s. I was, you know, all that stuff.

Not because of that, but just all the other benefits of exercise are even better for me now. You meet somebody in their 70s or 80s who's been exercising consistently for decades, and they love the exercise more now than they did when they were, you know, in their 70s or 80s who's been exercising consistently for decades, and they love the exercise more now than they did when they were in their youth. It just get better over time. You get better at what you do.

You start to recognize the movements and the types of workouts that benefit you the most. You also, it's like putting money away as an investment. We've talked about this recently with, you've done 10 years of building muscle, like it gets easier. It does. It gets easier to sustain. I mean, you've done 10 years of building muscle, like it gets easier. It does. It gets easier to sustain.

I mean, you shared that study recently. It takes one-ninth of the effort and workout to maintain what it took to get to that place. So, you know, you do all this hard work to get this place. I don't have to do as much to maintain that. The muscle memory effects, right? You're able to kind of get right back in

to receive the benefits a little more, you know, like soon in terms of like, I can jump back in after like being out for a while because I put all of that work in over time. That's a bank that I've been building that I can now, I can just receive the benefits from it. Yeah, one component too of kind of working through, anxiety and oppression I think for a lot of people is there tends to be a component of acceptance that once they achieve a certain level acceptance things tend to get better.

So maybe you're anxious or depressed because you lost a loved one or your job isn't what you thought or something, right? And you're just, it just bothers you. And at some point, hopefully, you get to the point of acceptance, and then a lot of that pain kind of goes away. Or maybe you just accept the fact that you're just not as happy as most people. I mean, there are different baselines for individuals, and you may just accept that, and that takes the edge off of it

because you're no longer judging how you feel. So acceptance is a big part of that. Well, here's the beauty of exercise in the long term. It is a wonderful acceptance teacher. Here's how, okay? Initially when people first start working out, they have some kind of aesthetic or physical goal. I want to look like the cover of the girl, I want to look like the girl on the cover of the magazine, or I want to look that like that super rip dude on Baywatch or the bodybuilder or whatever. And they train, train, train, train, train. And at some point, they realize,

I'll never look like that person because, not only is that person work out a lot, and whatever, maybe they do things that are unhealthy, but they also have like, these crazy, like good genetics that I just don't have. Or there's six, three, and I'm five, 10. Yeah, or whatever, I'm a little thicker, they're a little thinner.

He's got really wide shoulders, minor narrow. Her hips look differently to mine. But you continue the exercise. You know what ends up happening? You accept yourself. I'm never gonna look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't care. I really don't care.

I accept my body and I'm continuing to train it. That acceptance goes a long way. I mean, you talk to people who've been working out for decades and more often than not. When you talk to somebody who's been working out for two months, you get a lot of nonacceptance. No, I want to look this way. I don't like my body. Talk to someone who's been working out for 30, 40 years. They accept their body. They accept themselves. Like, yeah, this is how I look and this is who I am. I'm comfortable with it. And you get that more often than not. I also think that training for a long period of time with

that, it starts to teach you to train because you love yourself. You talk about this along on the show about learning to do that, to exercise because you love yourself, not because you hate the way you look or the way you are. And there's a bit of a learning curve there. It's not an overnight thing. It's not like somebody who comes in who doesn't like who they are, doesn't like the way they look, trains a week, and then also, they're like, oh, now I'm doing it because I love myself. But over time, this is what you get. That's the part of the acceptance that I see here is that when you've been training for a long period of time, you start to make the connections to all the other things that

we're talking about. And you start to train. Well, I'm a better person when I'm doing this consistently. Yeah. And you transition away from being this person who was so focused on the original goal that brought you into fitness, and now you're doing it for other reasons. That's part of that acceptance. I'm not doing this because I want to look

like that cover anymore. Regardless if I can or can't, who cares? It doesn't even matter anymore. Now I'm here because I love myself because I want to take care of myself and I deserve to be healthier. I deserve to be better. I deserve to be a better version of myself.

So that's why I'm doing it. I think that has a lot to do with the how it teaches acceptance. Totally. And again, if you look at studies on people who exercise for long term on a regular basis, they tend to do better in almost every aspect of life. They tend to be happier in their relationships. Of course, they tend to be healthier physically.

That's a given, but they also tend to be more successful in business. They tend to be happier in the relationships. They tend to suffer less from these low bouts of depression that all of us can go through. The lows are not as low. They tend to have less bouts of anxiety. It just helps everything. It is almost like, and I minus the spiritual aspect. I don't want to call it a spiritual practice, but in many ways it's got some of the benefits of spiritual practices. So there you have it.

You may be working out because you want to look better and you want to get stronger, build muscle and burn body fat, which is great, but what you may not realize is the most profound effects of exercise are the mental and psychological ones. Look, if you like our information, head over to MindPump Media, excuse me, MindPumpFree.com. At MindPumpFree.com, we have lots of guides that can help you, train your body, improve your health, change how you look, make yourself more fit and more healthy.

Again, MindPumpFree.com, you can also find all of us on Instagram. So Justin is at MindPump Justin. I'm at MindPump Salon, Adam. Is that MindPump Adam? Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

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